The Obama Administration has taken such an egregious action that is has me actively cheering gun control wallet-in-chief Mike Bloomberg. From today’s edition of Jim Geraghty’s Morning Jolt, on what he’s calling a de-facto travel ban to Israel, quoting Bloomberg:
“This evening I will be flying on El Al to Tel Aviv to show solidarity with the Israeli people and to demonstrate that it is safe to fly in and out of Israel,†Bloomberg said in a prepared statement emailed by former City Hall spokesman Marc La Vorgna shortly after 8 p.m.
“Ben Gurion is the best protected airport in the world and El Al flights have been regularly flying in and out of it safely,†Bloomberg continued. “The U.S. flight restrictions are a mistake that hands Hamas an undeserved victory and should be lifted immediately. I strongly urge the FAA to reverse course and permit US airlines to fly to Israel.â€
It’s not like anyone flying to Israel isn’t aware there’s a war going on. If people want to take their chances, it’s no business of the FAA’s. I agree with Geraghty that this is back channel pressure on the Israelis to comply with US demands. You know, US demands that it basically not defend itself.
I’ve said over the dinner table that if the drug cartels in Mexico were launching rockets over the border into El Paso at the same rate Hamas has been launching them out of Gaza, in a few days there would be no living cartel members. If the US Army wouldn’t invade Mexico and clean house, Texans would. There wouldn’t be all that much concern for collateral damage, as long as all the rockets and heavy weapons were found and destroyed quickly. A hostile Mexican government would likely be deposed. We all know we would do that. Even most liberal Americans faced with rocket attacks would demand action.
Yet this Administration apparently expects the Israelis to “show restraint.” They are. The fact that it took this long to go in shows remarkable restraint — restraint that Americans would never exercise in the same situation.
Is it wrong for me to hope that his plane gets shot down?
Wrong, yes.
Understandable though.
I was thinking the same thing…….
In the current conflict, there are two dead Israeli civilians. There are about six hundred dead Palestinian civilians. I don’t think the aggressor is who you think it is.
So you think a nation should just suffer regular rocket attacks as long as the people launching them have bad aim?
No, I don’t think they should. But I also don’t think a people should suffer a decades-long blockade that is designed to allow only enough food through to prevent starvation. Hamas stepped up the rocket attacks in response to an Israeli crackdown, involving the arrest of several hundred Palestinians without specific charges, and the death of several Palestinians. The Palestinians are not justified in launching rockets. The Israelis are not justified in their blockade, or in their current military action.
Hamas(and their backers, such as Iran) wants all Jews wiped off the face of the Earth. What do you expect Israel do, go silently into the night?.
They have no intention of letting Israel live in peace.
I recently learned that, in addition to forcibly removing Israelis from the Gaza strip, they gave Palestine three thousand greenhouses, and gave them funds, in an attempt to help their industry. Hamas tore down those greenhouses, and used those funds to obtain rockets.
While neither Israel nor the soldiers are saints (who is?), the Palestinians, and particularly Hamas, have proved time and time again that they are not interested in peace.
Indeed, if I were participating in the Israeli/Palestinian Peace Process, I would demand that Palestine would publicly destroy all known weapons, and publicly execute all leaders of Hamas, before talks start.
Before the blockade, the Palestinians would send suicide bombers into Israel. Since the blockade was put up, that’s much harder to do.
Israel has been playing defensively. Every “action” on the part of Israel has been a response to something the Palestinians did or are doing.
Palestine has a per capita annual income of around $1,100, but Hamas spent millions building tunnels under the blockade, with the sole purpose of attacking Israel. That’s just the newest mode of attack. Time and time again, instead of investing in infrastructure, agriculture, education, etc., to improve its people’s lives, Palestine invests in weapons and methods of attacking Israel. Israel, of course, responds with more restraint than is warranted — and gets demonized in the international community for it.
As Dennis Prager said, it’s not a complex problem to explain: one side (Palestine) wants the other side (Israel) dead. It’s a difficult problem to solve, but it’s simple to explain.
And as former Israel PM Golda Meir said, “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.” (emphasis added)
Doesn’t Gaza also share a border with Egypt?
“But I also don’t think a people should suffer a decades-long blockade that is designed to allow only enough food through to prevent starvation.”
The blockade came about because the Palestinians in Gaza were repeatedly crossing the border and murdering Israeli citizens. Every time Israel tries to let up on the blockade and get relief to Gaza, the leaders there respond by stepping up their attacks on Israel and diverting the increased resources to make future attacks easier and/or deadlier.
LibertarianRN, that type of thinking is just childish nonsense. The IDF has given advance warning of people with Gaza to leave, yet Hamas encourages citizens to stay in houses they know are going to be bombed and continues to fire rockets that are located in/next to schools and other populated areas. Hamas has no concern for the Palestinian people other than using the deaths to scream War Crimes.
Using your thinking we should compare the number of US civilians killed in WWII versus the number of German civilians killed. Yeah, I don’t think the agressor is who you think it is.
Where exactly are these Gazan citizens supposed to go? They’re in one of the most densely populated areas in the world – and not by choice. Maybe they should evacuate to somewhere safe, like a hospital. If only the Israelis weren’t shelling hospitals too! When a group treats another group as prisoners, detains people without charges, confiscates their property, denies them the right to bear arms, restricts their food supply, and engages in routine police brutality, I’m not going to be cheering them on.
They ended up in this predicament because they won’t live in peace with the Israelis.
A Palestinian in Israel has more rights than a Palestinian in Palestine. Part of the reason why Palestinians are in danger, is because the leadership has no respect for human life.
If they were to put these weapons near military bases, that would lessen the death toll of civilians. Better yet, if they were to stop shooting those weapons at Israeli cities, Israel would have no reason to respond in kind!
And why is it that, despite this being the most populous place in the world, Israel is able to evacuate Hamas targets (this, despite the fact that Hamas doesn’t give warning to what is being aimed at), while Hamas cannot evacuate a place when Israel gives advanced warning about where *they* are about to attack?
The differences in attitudes and outcomes is stark.
When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor we incinerated entire cities wiping out all human life be it civilian or military. That was a highly effective response and I wish the Israelis could do the same today. As for collateral damage the Palestinians should have thought about that before they voted for Hamas to be their leaders.
You reap what you sow my friend. Despite concessions that many people thought Israel would never make, Hamas and Palestinian people continued to try and target Israel. Keep in mind that in 2005 the IDF withdrew from Gaza and forcibly removed Israeli settlers with the idea that eventually the Gaza strip would become part of the two state solution. However Palestinians have continued to attach Israel forcing them to take defensive measures.
As to the hospital shellings, maybe the damn cowards could stop shooting rockets from hospital grounds. Hamas is a bunch of cowards that love dead Palestinians so they can talk about how bad the Jews are. One group gives advance warning of attacks to the citizens of Gaza and the other fires rockets from a beach where kids are playing.
And yet, you seems to have no problem with your resolute support of Hamas.
I guess it’s just not *fair* that Israel uses their rockets to protect their civilians, while Hamas uses their civilians to protect their rockets.
It’s funny, if Hamas removed rockets from their Hospitals Israel woudln’t shell ’em, but Hamas would happily shell an Israeli hospital regardless.
“If only the Israelis weren’t shelling hospitals too!”
If only the Palestinians weren’t firing their rockets from hospitals (and schools, and civilian neighborhoods, etc.)!
Which action, by the way is defined as a War Crime under the Geneva Conventions. The crime of Perfidy.
Furthermore. the side against whom Perfidy is committed (that would be Israel) is specifically allowed unrestricted response under those same Conventions. The idea is that the criminal side (that would be Hamas and the Palestinian Authority) should not benefit from the crime.
The dropped leaflets and phone messages to the potential targets are told and shown maps on where they should evacuate to avoid harm. Of coarse these residents have to evacuate their homes because they elected a terrorist organization (Hamas) to rule them and they let this terrorist organization launch rockets from their residential buildings. No sympathy for terrorists and the citizens who support them
By that logic the US was the agressor in WW2.
Yeah, it’s a damn shame the IDF has an active rocket-defense system and shelters in place to protect their people, while Hamas actively uses Palestinians as human shields.
I don’t take sides in conflicts that have nothing to do with me and mine. I wish more people were like me.
I think the world today is too small for that kind of thinking. When you can get from one end of the world to the other in a few hours, or a few minutes in the case of a missile, conflicts have a way of becoming your problem.
I, personally, don’t have any problem with looking at the information that we can get, and then determining, based on that information, who is in the right, and who is in the wrong. I try to update my “side-taking” as information flows in.
It’s a useful exercise, really, if for no other reason, than an opportunity to say “What would I do in this situation?”
On a more local level, IIRC, I originally thought that Zimmerman might have been an aggressor, based on initial news reports, but as news trickled in (and as certain lies were debunked), I moved to the side of supporting Zimmerman. I don’t see how this is any different from choosing to support Israel, or choosing sides in another conflict.
Now, whether such decisions should (or even could) lead to a course of action, is a different matter entirely…
The reason I tend to view the Palestinians less favorably is because I would accept a two state solution over continued killing. They were offered that.
That’s a huge reason why I tend to view Palestinians less favorably, too. Among other reasons, they also have a history of doing dishonest things (such as faking dead and injured to get more sympathy) that makes me distrust them…
There is no motive to attack us if we stay the F#%k out of the middle of sh!t we have no business inserting ourselves into. There are plenty of non-Muslim countries that aren’t being targeted by jihadists because they stay out of it.
I personally think Israel has every right to do whatever they think is necessary to stop the attacks. But I don’t “stand” with them and I certainly don’t want my tax money being used to kill people who I would rather have nothing to do with. It’s their fight and they’re perfectly capable of winning on their own, just as they did prior to the six day war. These retarded American Bible-bangers should go there on their own dime if they want to “stand” with Israel so badly. The same goes for all of those fanatical, swarthy, stinky dum-dums who pray FIVE times a day because of some fairy tale. Go to the “holy” land yourselves and hopefully all of you get blown to pieces so the rest of us can get on with our lives and stop hearing about sh!t that shouldn’t concern us.
Couple of Simple Points to Consider. A) If Hamas was so full of Peace and Enlightenment, why aren’t their Muslim Brothers, the EGYPTIANS opening THEIR SEVEN MILE stretch of the Border with Gaza and taking in Refugees? Because Egypt knows the FIRST people out of the Gate will be the “Brave Hamas Leadership,” followed by their Foot Soldiers. And Egypt has enough Terrorists roaming the Sinai as it is. B) If Hamas was so full of Peace and Enlightenment, why did they build Cross-Border Tunnels instead of Civilian Bomb Shelters? And why aren’t they letting the Civilians INTO those Tunnels? C) If Hamas was so full of Peace and Enlightenment, how come THEY are the only ones being attacked by the IDF? Hezbollah isn’t launching Rockets out of Lebanon, nor are there Rockets coming out of the Golan Heights or the West Bank.
Bottom Line: when your “War Plan” for “Resistance” consists of Hiding amongst Woman and Children and Mosques and Schools and Hospitals and using them as Human Shields, well, I guess that just proves that Hamas is a Pack of Murdering Terrorist Scum who need to get what they deserve.
I think the carriers asked the FAA to do it. Their hull insurance polices won’t pay out in an active war zone.
Heh. Funny how, when a place is ringed with guns (not to mention certain heavier weapons), it becomes SAFE enough for Bloomberg.
Israel has been a lot more patient than I would be. If I were in charge, the first rocket attack after the Palestinians put Hamas in charge would have been followed up by a good heavy bombing of all the launcher sites and a message broadcast to Gaza saying “Don’t make us do it again.” If that didn’t stop it after another half-dozen or so attacks (each with the same follow up), I’d have just carpet bombed the whole bloody Gaza Strip.
They put the terrorists in charge, they can live (or die) with the consequences. The power to live in peace with Israel lies entirely in their own hands.
Personally, after more than a few attacks with no sign of peaceful coexistence on the horizon, I’d just make the rubble bounce and be done with it.